Pouso Alegre
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Pouso Alegre is a city and municipality in southern Minas Gerais state, Brazil with a population of 106.776 (2000) of which 97.756 were urban and 9.020 were rural. The literacy rate is 94.2%. The area of the municipality is 541 km2. It lies in the valley of the Sapucaí River.
Cities that form boundaries with Pouso Alegre are: Santa Rita do Sapucaí, Careaçu, São Sebastião da Bela Vista, Estiva, Congonhal, São João da Mata and Silvianópolis.
The distance to the state capital, Belo Horizonte, is 385 km, to São Paulo 202 km, and to Rio de Janeiro 390 km.
The city is 8 km. from the main interstate highway BR-381 (Rodovia Fernão Dias), which connects São Paulo to Belo Horizonte. For location see [1]
Pouso Alegre is an industrial center with industries in the food sector, textiles, and metallurgy. Many national and multi-national enterprises have their plants here. Their activities include food (Unilever), clothing (Searchco), cars (Usiparts - Johnson Control's - Sumidenso), pharmaceuticals (Uniao Quimica, Sanobiol), glass (Sobral Invicta), and many other small and medium enterprises.
[edit] History
The "Bandeirantes" explored all the Brazilian country looking for gold and other mineral resources. They were the first European explorers to arrive in the ancient Pouso Alegre region, in 1596.
After discovering gold in the Santana's mines, they founded the new village called "Matosinho do Mandu", Pouso Alegre's first name. New paths were built to connect Pouso Alegre to other cities. These paths connected it to São Paulo and to Vila Rica.
In 1797 the Governor Dom Bernardo José de Lorena, Sarzedas Baron, passing by the small village became so enchanted by its nature, by "the vast and clean horizons", said "This village should not be called Mandu, but Pouso Alegre". In Portuguese, Pouso Alegre means "a nice stay".
